Social networking is invading the office. The issue used to be, “Which friends will I 'friend?'" But what about when the boss wants to friend you? And what about the other side of the coin—should you friend the boss? What about co-workers? Vendors? Clients?

A recent survey suggests that friending in these situations often makes people uncomfortable. But, because it's not always avoidable, the survey's developers—OfficeTeam—suggest setting up some different levels of friends, so that the people from the office don't see pictures from your social life that may not be appropriate for the office.

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Survey says ...

OfficeTeam is a staffing service specializing in the placement of highly skilled administrative professionals. Their survey was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on telephone interviews with 150 randomly selected senior executives at the nation's 1,000 largest companies.

Executives were asked, "How comfortable would you feel about being 'friended' by the following individuals on Facebook?" Their responses:

"The line between personal and professional has grown increasingly blurred as more people use social networking websites for business purposes," said Robert Hosking, executive director of OfficeTeam. He said that managers, even if they aren't going to connect with business contacts on social networking sites, need to be prepared to deal with requests for friending and such.

Hosking advises managers and employees to familiarize themselves with privacy settings and create different friend lists to control how—and with whom—information is shared. "Individuals should classify their professional contacts into a 'work' list and limit what personal details this group can view," said Hosking.

Following are some common Facebook situations professionals may encounter—aand OfficeTeam's recommendations for handling them:

• You're tagged in an embarrassing photo. Untag yourself and change your privacy settings so photos are viewable only by your close friends.
• You're friended by someone you don't want to connect with. It might be best to accept friend requests from colleagues to avoid slighting them, but add them to a "work" list and adjust your privacy settings so you can effectively separate your job from your personal life.
• You're considering friending your boss. It may seem like a natural extension of amiable office small talk, but think twice before proactively friending your boss. It could become awkward for both of you.
• You want to join various groups. You should join groups that interest you. But if you have colleagues in your network and don't want them to see the groups you join, remember to adjust your application settings.
• You would like to be a fan of certain pages. Becoming a fan of pages on Facebook is visible to anyone who can view your profile, so you should avoid becoming a fan of any page you are uncomfortable sharing with coworkers or business contacts in your network.
• You love quizzes. Stop and think for a moment before taking online quizzes and posting the results to your Facebook page—unless you want professional contacts to know which Gilligan’s Island character you most resemble.

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Social networking. Does it belong in the office?

No matter, it's there. How about you, readers? Are you linked to co-workers, bosses, or subordinates on social networking sites? Had any problems? We'd love to hear how this is playing out at your company. Let us know and we'll summarize the responses in a future issue of the Advisor.